Moons: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

David A. Rothery

ISBN 10: 0198735278 / ISBN 13: 9780198735274

Verlag: Oxford University Press, 2016

Beschreibung

Our Solar System contains more moons than planets. They show astonishing variety, and some look more likely than Mars to host microbial life. David Rothery describes these fascinating small worlds, their discovery, names, and what they can tell us about our solar system. Series: Very Short Introductions. Num Pages: 176 pages, 26 black and white halftones. BIC Classification: WNX. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 175 x 113 x 16. Weight in Grams: 138. . 2016. 1st Edition. Paperback. . . . . Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers V9780198735274

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Moons: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short...

Verlag: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsdatum: 2016

Einband: Softcover

Zustand: New

Auflage: 1. Auflage

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe:

Proving to be both varied and fascinating, moons are far more common than planets in our Solar System. Our own Moon has had a profound influence on Earth, not only through tidal effects, but even on the behaviour of some marine animals. Many remarkable things have been discovered about the moons of the giant outer planets from Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, and other spacecraft. Scientists have glimpsed volcanic activity on Io, found oceans of water on Titan, and captured photos of icy geysers bursting from Enceladus. It looks likely that microbial life beyond the Earth may be discovered on a moon rather than a planet.

In this Very Short Introduction David Rothery introduces the reader to the moons of our Solar System, beginning with the early discoveries of Galileo and others, describing their variety of mostly mythological names, and the early use of Jupiter's moons to establish position at sea and to estimate the speed of light. Rothery discusses the structure, formation, and influence of our Moon, and those of the other planets, and ends with the recent discovery of moons orbiting asteroids, whilst looking forward to the possibility of finding moons of exoplanets in planetary systems far beyond our own.



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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor:

David Rothery is Professor of Planetary Geosciences at the Open University. He is a member of the BepiColombo science team (the European Space Agencyâs mission to Mercury), and chairs the Open Universityâs level 2 module on planetary science. He is also the lead academic for the Open University/FutureLearn Moons MOOC (massive open online course), and is the author of several books, including Planets: A Very Short Introduction.